DeSales girls win, boys lose in final day of Shamrock Shootout

DeSales' girls pick up their second victory of the Shootout, 42-37, but the Irish boys suffer their second defeat, 70-44.

Walla Walla Union-Bulletin

Thursday, December 31, 2009

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WALLA WALLA — As was the case in Tuesday’s opening session of the inaugural Blue Mountain Officials Association Shamrock Shootout, the DeSales girls basketball team came away victorious while their male counterparts came up short on Wednesday night as the two-day classic came to an end at Whitman College’s George Ball Court in Sherwood Center.

The Irish girls improved to 5-1 with a 42-37 victory over Riverside Christian.

RC’s boys dropped DeSales to 1-5 on the year after a 70-44 conquest.

Both DeSales teams will host Weston-McEwen on Tuesday night. The girls game is scheduled to tip off at 6 and the boys will follow at 7:30.

DeSales girls 42, RC 37

Caitlin Duncan stroked a pair of 3-point shots within the first minute and change of the opening period to give the Irish an early 6-0 lead.

But the Crusaders rallied behind sophomore post Kendra Staymates, who helped RC forge a 16-12 lead at the end of the quarter by connecting on three of four shots from the floor.

The Crusaders shot 54 percent (7-for-13) in the first eight minutes.

Both teams went just 2-for-11 from the field in the second quarter. Duncan drained a 3 from the right wing at the 1:10 mark to tie the score at 18 and Erin Giusti converted both ends of a one-and-one with .8 seconds on the clock to knot the tally at 20-20 going into halftime.

Each ball club managed 10 points in the third quarter. Kristin Kinder had eight points in the frame for Riverside Christian and Duncan led DeSales with six points — on two 3-point goals.

Neither side set the nets on fire in the first five minutes of quarter four. The score was knotted at 32-32 when DeSales reserve Claire Konen sank a 3-point bomb with three minutes left to give the Irish the lead for keeps.

"She’s shooting at least 50 percent from the 3-point line this season," coach Duncan said. "She takes the shots she has and knows when to take them."

Giusti and Duncan combined to score their team’s last seven points in the final 1:37 to seal the triumph.

Duncan ended up with 21 points. Giusti narrowly missed a double-double with eight points and a team-high nine rebounds.

"Our half-court defense was O.K.," coach Duncan said. "In the first quarter we didn’t have good transition out of our press but, overall, our defense was better after that."

RC 70, DeSales boys 44

All 11 Crusader players who suited up scored at least two points in RC’s rout of the mistake-prone Irish.

DeSales, which coughed the ball up 37 times in the game, jumped out to a 10-2 lead early in the first quarter on the strength of four points from Tommy Gregg and three each by Shea Crowley and Victor Mata.

But the Crusaders pulled within two, 10-8, heading into the second period.

A pair of charity tosses by Zach Peggins just 3:09 before intermission gave RC a 21-20 edge — a lead it would build to three, 28-25, by halftime.

The Crusaders put further distance between themselves and DeSales with an 18-10 scoring advantage in the third quarter. RC placed seven players in the scoring column during the period — led by the four points apiece of Jeremy Pynch and Kyle Gartrell.

Pynch, who led all scorers with 14 points, and Derek Byrne both had six points in the last quarter as the Crusaders outscored the Irish 24-9.

Crowley and Mata led DeSales with 12 points apiece.

"Their press bothered us," DeSales coach Mike Giusti said. "Some of the (22) turnovers we forced were travels, so we had to set up our press offense. We have to work on it.

"Our lack of offensive execution is causing us to give up more points than a lack of defensive execution," Giusti said. "We need to get the ball in the hands of our ball handlers and we’re not doing that."